Sunday, May 11, 2008

Molly's Second Day at Home

Molly is setting in quite nicely. We haven't had any inside accidents so I'm not sure what the folks who returned her after 5 weeks were doing or not doing. Yesterday when I woke up the first time at 5am, I took her out immediately since I didn't know how she would do first thing in the morning. This morning, I had to wake her up at 8:30am and she spent several minutes outside yawning and stretching before needing to go.

She is indeed a cutie and just the right size. She's still working on eating although she tore through one of the chew bones (dentabone) last night before I knew it. She had trouble at first because she doesn't seem to know to hold onto it with her front paws while she is chewing but she eventually began to figure that out a bit with some help. I want her to rely primarily on dry food since it's better nutrition and easier to manage - esp. now that the Science Diet small bags are resealable - a nice addition since we last bought dog food last year.

She did quite well in her traveling bag - esp. with the lambswool liner on the bottom so that is a good sign for future travel. Shadow used to fight it until the last year or two so her starting out not fighting it is good. I'm also sure it helps that she is only about 2/3 of Shadow's size and, therefore, might.

Molly is learning that she gets petted for awhile when she sits down with me to read and/or do computer stuff (like now) but then she needs to just settle in. She's had fun running the yard and even seems to stay with me as I walk around the house outside the fence. But I know as she feels more secure that may change but it sure is nice to have a dog that doesn't take off at the slightest opportunity.

Today we'll figure out if she can handle mowing while I figure out a way to keep her further away so she doesn't get hurt. I bought a stake and non-chewable chain just for that purpose. As she gets more secure, I can leave her inside the fence when I mow outside it in the back but she'll most likely need to stake when we're inside the fence and out front. We'll find out this afternoon when it warms up a bit.

Several tornadoes went just south of us so there are man people in the area not having a good day.